AdvertisementHe had released Siku Njema (Longhorn, 1996), inspired to a certain extent by Said Ahmed Mohamed’s collection of poetry Sikate Tamaa (Longhorn, 1980) on sociopolitical struggles about which both of us had written. More specifically, Walibora’s first novel had the spirit of the eleven-stanza poem titled “Siku Njema” and the words of the last stanza “Redio huvuma: ‘Ni siku njema’/Na sisi husema, maneno kwandama/ ‘Siku njema, siku njema’/Kweli siku njema?” (The radio advances the view that it is a good day, but is it really?) Our commitment to social justice and a politics of non-discrimination resonated well with the narrative voice in Siku Njema, a long-standing set book in Kenyan secondary schools. Prof Clara Momanyi says Walibora contributed significantly in debunking the myth that there was a paucity of quality Kiswahili creative writers. A couple of years later I was in a matatu travelling to Mombasa, and next to me sat a young woman reading Siku Njema.

Source: Daily Nation April 18, 2020 07:07 UTC